A/N: Having a newborn is hard - but he's really cute and way less work than writing. I make no promises on when the next chapter will arrive. I have three fest pieces due in the next two weeks and wrote this instead so - Thank you to Riverwriter as always for making sure I hadn't gone completely off the rails with this offering - ENJOY

In the years that follow, Hermione always remembers this day as the one that cements Draco as the best man in her life and Astoria as the luckiest woman she knows.

"I'll do it."

"Will you - No you will fucking not!" Draco snarls. He takes a step between Hermione - whom is barely being held up by a bewildered Harry - and Tom.

Tom.

Her Alpha.

Tom, her alpha, who is glaring at Draco even as his nostrils flare and his eyes slide to Hermione every few seconds. She slumps a little in Harry's grip and flicks her eyes in Theo's direction.

Theo isn't her alpha but he can help her right?

She knows he'll take care of her and stretches her hand out in his direction but -

He's not looking at her.

He's watching Harry.

Harry, whose eyes are flicking between all of them. "What's going on?" He asks, stepping forward and letting Hermione slip from his grasp until she's standing alone. She wraps her arms around herself in an effort to ward off the mild chill she feels spreading through her bones. When she takes a step in Tom's direction Draco loses it.

"No!" He says, wrapping a hand around her wrist and tugging her into him.

"What's going on?" Harry asks again. "Why are you all in here arguing?"

"We don't have time for this," Tom sighs, taking a step forward. "Hermione. Come here."

She takes a step forward only to find herself behind Draco once again.

"Are you out of your fucking mind?" Draco yells. "She's not going anywhere with you!"

"Why would she-" Harry trails off, his face paling as he glances between his ex and his best friend. "Oh fuck."

Theo laughs and Hermione watches Harry turn his head to glare at him. "You knew."

"No, actually," he snorts. "I only found out a few minutes ago." He rolls his shoulders and Hermione watches his tongue flick across his lips as she meets his gaze. "But it certainly is a turn up for the books."

Hermione presses her wrists together and whines, clutching at Draco's arm. "Please."

"You're all arseholes," Draco declares, wrapping his arm around her shoulder and turning her back towards the door.

"Where are you taking her?" Theo and Tom demand.

"She's never been with an alpha during a heat," Draco says and watches them all pale as that information settles. "And I'll be damned if I let either one of you help her when she can barely stand up straight, let alone decide."

"Tom should take her," Harry interjects and Hermione turns her head to watch her Alpha. "He's the one who should help her."

Draco laughs but its a harsh, grating sound and Hermione curls in closer to him. "Maybe he should have thought about going with her two years ago when he found out who she was."

"What?!" Harry hisses, but then Draco is dragging her from the room and thrusting her into Daphne's embrace where she promptly blacks out.

When she wakes up she's home.

Alone.

And in absolute agony.

There's a note slid under her bedroom door from Daphne telling her that she and Harry will be over in a few days to check on her.

She can feel her body preparing for the first wave of her heat - her bones are aching and her glands are pulsing as she stumbles to the kitchen for some water before she's an incoherent mess of slick and pheromones.

And even though she knows that there is no one here to help her, to settle into the nest she'll inevitably make because she does it every time her heat hits her, she stumbles to the hot press and gathers the extra blankets and pillows in her arms, drags them into her room and then bolts the door.

When she wakes three days later she can hear movement outside of her bedroom door and takes a minute to collect herself.

Her heat wasn't supposed to have been due for at least another week but she should have known - should have realised - that being in Tom's presence would kickstart it.

Not that his presence at her best friend's wedding was something she could have foreseen.

After a long shower, she dresses in a pair of pyjamas, throws her hair up into a bun and unlocks her bedroom door. When she sees Harry sitting in her living room she wishes she'd just stayed there.

"Hey." She says gently, wrapping her arms around herself as she makes her way into the room. Tears are already pooling in her eyes and she gives him a shaky smile, but he hasn't moved from his spot at on the arm of her couch. "You should have told me," he mutters petulantly, removing his glasses and pressing the palms of his hands into his eyes.

Hermione snorts and stands before him, fiddling with the torn hem of her pyjama shirt. "No. I shouldn't have. It doesn't matter anyway. He made his choice," she says dismissively before turning to greet Daphne who's just entered the room with a tray of tea.

"Are you ok?"

"I'm fine," she mumbles. "Thank you for bringing me home."

"Of course," she replies gently before tugging Harry ontop the couch proper and settling onto his lap.

Hermione pours the tea for them all before she realises they're both looking at her. Well - Daphne is glancing at her whilst Harry is outright glaring. "What's wrong now?"

Daphne clears her throat. "It's nothing."

But Harry - her best friend, Harry whom she's known for almost her entire life - isn't as generous and simply lays the truth out for her. "You slept with Nott?"

Hermione chokes on her tea. "Excuse me?"

He only continues to glare at her. "Did you know?"

"Know what?" She asks, gripping her mug tightly.

"About Theo?"

Daphne gently nudges him. "Harry."

"What about him?"

"About his mate?" He laughs, that same bitter laugh she heard from Draco just days ago. "Sorry," he taunts, wrapping his arms around an increasingly uncomfortable Daphne. "Mates."

She drops her cup.

"What?" She whispers.

This can't be happening. Theo can't be, surely he wouldn't -

"Why isn't he with you then?" She asks, her eyes flicking between the pair of them. "Why wouldn't he want to-"

"It's my fault," Daphne interjects. "We didn't know Harry was our third until after we had already started to bond and then -" Daphne trails off and Hermione feels like a voyeur watching Harry wipe the tears that are streaming down her face away. "I didn't do a very good job explaining my feelings about the whole thing to him and he left. Draco's wedding was the first time I've, we've," she corrects, "seen him in six months."

"I'm sorry."

"It's ok," Daphne smiles, clutching Harry's hand. "It's not your fault."

"I swear I had no idea."

"I -" she elbows Harry in the ribs, "we know."

Harry sighs, rubbing the back of his neck with one hand as he looks up and meets Hermione's eye. "Sorry."

She waves off his apology but he's crossing the room anyway and falling to his knees at her feet, taking her hands from her lap and placing them in his. "I'm sorry about Tom."

She stiffens where she sits and tugs her hand from his. "I don't want to talk about it."

"But I do."

Her sudden anger surprises even her. "Well of course. Whatever Harry wants he gets," she sneers. "What do you want to know?" She demands, crossing her arms across her chest and glaring down at him. "How I knew who he was as soon as I saw him? How heartbroken I was when I found out the pair of you were together? How I had to stop myself reaching out for him every time I saw him? Your relationship is the reason I left, you know? I didn't trust myself and you - Harry you were so happy." She's crying now, exhausted and weeping as she stands from the couch and, pushing a hand through her hair begins to pace in front of the open fireplace that she loved from the second she saw it. "You were so happy," she sniffs, staring up at the ceiling. She doesn't want to see their pity.

"Oh Hermione," Daphne laments before she's standing and drawing her into her arms. Hermione doesn't stop her, simply wraps her arms around her new friend and sobs.

"I - I had no idea," Harry mutters.

She takes a deep breath and pulls back from Daphne. "I know. You weren't supposed to. That's why I left."

"Do you know why he-" Daphne begins.

"Rejected me?" Hermione supplies, shuddering. "No."

"I think, fuck!" Harry mutters crossing the room and pulling both women onto the couch beside him, Hermione squashed between him and Daphne. "I think I know."

Hermione peeks up at him. "Really?"

He swallows, averting his eyes and nods jerkily. "But I don't think it's my place to say."

Hermione reluctantly agrees with him.

If she's going to find out the reason Tom has rejected her the past few years she'd rather hear it from the horse's mouth.

"What are you going to do about Theo?" Hermione eventually asks - after Harry has poured her a new cup of tea and the empty mugs are back on the tray - glancing between Harry and Daphne.

"I don-"

"I'll talk to him," Harry says, his face twisting in a grimace at the thought. "He's a stubborn fucker."

That startles a laugh from both Hermione and Daphne.

"It'll be ok," Daphne murmurs and Hermiones not sure just who she's trying to reassure.